Scoop opens the same way every Woody Allen movie has for the past 35-plus years: white titles on a black background. They’re even in the same font, to which he by now should have some sort of proprietary right—call it “Woody” and put it on the list right there between Wingdings and Zapf Dingbats.

In Coastlines, the veteran independent filmmaker Victor Nunez (Ulee’s Gold, Ruby in Paradise, Gal Young ’Un) seems to have been playing around with the fundamental elements of an Elmore Leonard novel, and of countless Hollywood crime dramas (including a few based on Leonard’s books). The result induces some initial hope and some residual sympathy, but it’s also likely to produce a sense that Nunez’s latest work—it’s being released by the Emerging Cinema project after a delay of almost four years—lacks sufficient focus and impact.